EDITORIAL: School Board Should Reduce Class Sizes before Building Pool at 12th High School

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Prince William County Schools will be voting on whether to include a pool in their 12th high school this Wednesday. As it stands now, many School Board members representing citizens on the east side of the county are in favor of the pool, including Dr. Michael Otaigbe of the Coles District, Lillie Jessie of the Occoquan District, new school board member Loree Williams of the Woodbridge District along with Chairman Milt Johns.

Meanwhile, School Board members on the west side of the county, Gil Trenum of the Brentsville District and Alyson Satterwhite of the Gainesville District, are opposed to it. Lisa Bell of the Neabsco District is as well; Betty Covington of the Potomac District is undecided.

Given this divide, I can only surmise that School Board members are at least partially basing their votes on how likely their constituents are to benefit from having a pool in close proximity. While the pool would be a great asset to the county, it is not for the School Board to build.

Let’s get it out in the open. I don’t consider a county pool a luxury. I consider it an amenity needed by the county for the swim teams and others leisure swimmers. However, it is a luxury when it is built within a school and paid for using school division funds.

What difference does it make? It makes the difference that the School Board does not have taxing authority, and with the funds they do receive from the county, they are expected to put them towards educational priorities.

Though the pool will be paid for with bonds, bonds will need to be paid back with interest. Additionally, capital improvement plan (CIP) funds could better be spent elsewhere on new schools, school additions or even on technology in the classroom. These items could affect student outcomes better than a county pool.

Moreover, when the School Board demonstrates that it cannot prioritize funding, it becomes less able to secure needed funds from the county even as most supervisors recognize the school division needs more funds to function properly and keep up with population growth.

Right now the biggest priority for the School Board should be reducing class sizes. Everyone in the community knows it. Heck, everyone in Virginia knows it. Prince William has the largest class sizes in the state.

When the School Board met with the Board of County Supervisors, they told the supervisors they are unable to reduce class sizes within the confines of their own budget constraints. As such, they have asked for the county to help by providing them with an additional $3.5 million to reduce class sizes in kindergarten, sixth and ninth grade math.

When the supervisors heard the School Board was asking to only reduce class sizes in three grade levels, they were a little surprised. And, listening to their comments, I can only assume they expected the School Board to ask for more money as well (And why not? They can only say no.)

And I definitely find it ironic that the school division is shy about asking for more money for teachers, but not shy about proposing a pool in the new high school.

Additionally, the School Board lacks the necessary fund even to provide teachers with their cost to compete, which used to come from the state, as well as annual salary increases. This is additional money that will have to come from somewhere or teachers will simply not receive increases and with more contributions to the states, they may even receive less in next year's paycheck than they did in the previous year.

While the children of the community are the priority here, not the teachers; unhappy teachers do not make for happy classrooms.

Just two years ago, many Prince William teachers decided to work only to contract once they became fed up with being silent about their salaries remaining stagnant for multiple years.

The teachers in Prince William County Schools have weathered the economic crisis admirably for six years, but there is a difference between counting yourself fortunate to have a job in tough economic times, and knowing that your employers do not value you enough to spend money on you, the people who make the system work.

Those advocating for the pool should consider the economic situation the county is currently mired in. We are not yet out of a national recession, and sequestration has affected families in our area: you know, those very same reasons we are willing to give for not raising taxes, but not for scaling down our CIP.

With the nation still rebounding from the economic recession, states are still digging themselves out of a hole. It is no different in Virginia, where the Commonwealth is still asking its public employees to pitch in more towards funding their retirement funds.

Public employees are stretched thin because if we asked corporations to pay more, we would no longer be the best state for business according to Forbes Magazines. So even as we grow more prosperous, it does not necessarily trickle down accordingly.

So currently, the crisis we face in this county is that Prince William County Schools have the largest class sizes in the state. I find that odd, because Prince William is by far not the poorest school division in the state, so it seems more a matter that we have been either irresponsible in not levying enough taxes, irresponsible in managing our tax dollars, or both.

We are also not, despite what elected officials might say, the most fiscally conservative county or school division. Not all Republicans are fiscally prudent- think Donald Trump. Doesn’t he call himself a Republican these days?

But the result of having packed classrooms is that students get less attention from their teachers. Those children only get one chance at an education, and if they are not engaged or inspired, and do not learn even the basics, it will affect their lives forever from the colleges they attend to how they fair in college, the careers they take and onto future generations.

Choosing CIP projects over children is wrong, even if in the long run, it will be more beneficial to our property values or bringing new business into the county. Although I doubt it will, because class sizes do weigh more on parents’ minds than community pools, and businesses consider the quality of schools as much, if not more than county amenities.

I’m not saying we need to scratch everything from the county CIP. I’m just saying we should weigh our priorities.

If we want a black box theatre at the new high school, which, I happen to think every performing arts school worth its salt should have, perhaps eliminate the turf fields. Maybe the next high school can have the greatest turf fields, or turf fields can be added during the upgrade cycle. Maybe in 2020, if and when we are caught up with the number of teachers, we can add a pool in that same high school.

Right now, swim parents, if you want a pool, I suggest you ask for it from the Board of County Supervisors. They might be able to get it for you; they might not.

However, I cannot blame you for petitioning the School Board when they have been all too receptive to you. It’s like asking grandma for money, because you’ll know she’ll give it to you, even though she’s on a fixed income and really can’t afford the gift.

Brentsville Supervisor Wally Covington had a great idea of forming another partnership, perhaps with GMU, to make the pool happen. That’s the kind of out-of-the-box thinking I appreciate, rather than the “write a check thinking” we sometimes get from the school division.

School Board members, I suggest holding off on the pool and spending the money on education first. As private citizens, and ones with a little clout, you can lobby the BOCS for the pool.

If the pool comes from the county side, citizens will be a little more understanding, everyone can get what they want and everyone can save face.

This is an opinion piece. Bristow Beat respects all sides of the argument. We welcome responses of differing opinions, but please keep your responses cordial. 

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